1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to a rechargeable electronic watch and a driving method of the rechargeable electronic watch, and more particularly, a rechargeable electronic watch of which the clock operation duration can be prolonged and a driving method of the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, some electronic watches are provided with an additional power saving mode function for reducing the power consumption of the electronic watch provided that it would not hinder particularly the use of the electronic watch for the purpose of using as long as possible the power supply means compose of a storage battery or the like used at the same time as a power generation means.
For instance, as disclosed in the Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (KOKAI) No. 5-60075, an electronic watch using a solar cell as a main power source enters the power save mode when there is no sunlight incident on the solar cell of the electronic watch continuously for a predetermined fixed time, and exits the power saving mode when there is sunlight incident on the solar cell again.
Also, the power saving mode function in such a conventional electronic watch is designed to enter the power saving mode for stopping all hour display and stop driving of the display means including hour information display in a state disadvantageous for the power source, for instance, when a solar cell is used as a power source, because it is essential to use the power source as long as possible.
However, in recent years, an analog electronic watch whose hour and minute hands and second hand are driven by separate motors for time display, or a combination electronic watch wherein the seconds are displayed by a liquid crystal display are also made for practical use, and if all hour display is stopped under a certain condition, the user could not obtain any information at all.
On the other hand, electronic watches provided with a built-in display mechanism of several kinds of functions including a chronometer display function, alarm display function, atmospheric pressure display function, water depth display function or the like are also made for practical use, and are designed to display on a predetermined display means the kind or kinds of function information at the same time as the hour information, or changing over with the hour information.
In such recent electronic watches implementing function information other than hour information, if a conventional type power saving mode function is used, not only the hour information but also function information are not displayed at the same time on the display means, when a state disadvantageous for the power source as mentioned above happens, blocking the use of the function information display means, particularly in an environment requiring function information, causing to reduce the product value as a multi-functional electronic watch.
On the other hand, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (KOKAI) No. 9-304555 discloses a rechargeable electronic watch wherein a counter is installed for measuring the elapsed time after the motor stops, to facilitate a return to an accurate actual hour even when the hand motion is stopped for power saving, and for measuring rapid advance time also, to return hour and minute hands to the accurate actual time from both measured times.
However, in the Publication, the motion of the hour and minute hands stops only when the output from the power generation means or power storage means of the rechargeable electronic watch becomes equal or below a predetermined level, namely, only under a certain fixed condition; therefore, in a rechargeable electronic watch provided with a plurality of additional functions, the additional functions become completely unavailable, even when the voltage state allows the use of the additional functions, causing the user inconvenience.
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to improve the aforementioned defects of the prior art and to provide an electronic watch in that in displaying clock information and function information on separate display means, respectively, for example, by hands and by a liquid crystal display, the electronic watch can be selectively controlled under the most optimal clock operation mode selected from a plurality of clock operation modes by selecting an arbitrary circuit or by using a display means whereby the display means can be stopped, in response to an amount of power generation in a power generator or an amount of power storage flowing into a power storing means, in a power saving mode.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a rechargeable electronic watch among multi-functional rechargeable electronic watches providing a number of additional function information, which does not lose complete usage of the rechargeable electronic watch by forming the electronic watch so that one of the functions of the rechargeable electronic watch can be selected arbitrarily in response to either an amount of power generation in a power generator or an amount of power storage flowing into_a power storing means so as to optimize a balance of the power, which is the same as that in an electronic watch only displaying time information, whereby it is intended to extend a clock operation duration of the rechargeable electronic watch as well as to keep limitations for using a certain function a user of the watch wishes to use at the lowest level.
In order to attain the above-mentioned objects of the present invention, the present invention basically has the technical construction as mentioned hereunder.
Note that, a first aspect of the present invention is a rechargeable electronic watch operating with an energy source comprising a power supply including a power generation means and a power storage means charged with electric energy generated from the power generation means, the rechargeable electronic watch comprising a watch circuit for counting or processing time information or function information or the like so as to output the information, a display means for displaying the time information or the function information or the like based on an output signal from the watch circuit, a power generation amount detecting means for detecting the amount of power generation of the power generation means, and a control means for controlling the operation of the watch circuit in response to the amount of the power generation , wherein the watch circuit is driven in at least one clock operation mode selected, based on the control of the control means, from a plurality of clock operation modes provided in the rechargeable electronic watch, with each of the modes being different from each other in power consumption.
A second aspect of the present invention is a rechargeable electronic watch operating with an energy source comprising a power supply including a power generation means and a power storage means charged with electric energy generated from the power generation means, the rechargeable electronic watch comprising a watch circuit for counting or processing time information or function information or the like so as to output the information, a display means for displaying the time information or the function information or the like based on an output signal from the watch circuit, a power storage amount detecting means for detecting the amount of power storage flowing into in the power storage means, and a control means for controlling the operation of the watch circuit in response to the amount of the power_storage, wherein the watch circuit is driven in at least one clock operation mode selected, based on the control of the control means, from a plurality of clock operation modes provided in the rechargeable electronic watch, with each of the modes being different from each other in power consumption.
A third aspect of the present invention is a rechargeable electronic watch operating with an energy source comprising a power supply including a power generation means and a power storage means charged with electric energy generated from the power generation means, there chargeable electronic watch comprising a watch circuit for counting or processing time information or function information or the like so as to output the information, a display means for displaying the time information or the function information or the like based on an output signal from the watch circuit, a power generation amount detecting means for detecting the amount of power generation of the power generation means, a power storage amount detecting means for detecting the amount of power storage flowing into the power storage means, a remaining capacity detecting means for detecting the remaining capacity of the power storage means and a control means for controlling the operation of the watch circuit in response to the two optional detected values selected among three detected values, such as the power generation amount, the power storage amount and the remaining capacity, wherein the watch circuit is driven in at least one clock operation mode selected, based on the control of the control means, from a plurality of clock operation modes provided in the rechargeable electronic watch, with each of the modes being different from each other in power consumption.